Success and Failure of EU Policies in Ukraine and Belarus
Success and Failure of EU Policies in Ukraine and Belarus

Summary/Abstract: This paper studies the empirical puzzle as to why, under similar circumstances, EU policies aimed at democratization have been relatively successful in Ukraine and failed in Belarus. The divergent outcomes of the EU policies are best explained by the Europeanization theories, stating that the degree of “misfit” between the EU and target state, EU policies toward this state, domestic structures of the state and external actors’ policies largely determine the effectiveness of the EU policies. This paper undertakes a qualitative comparative analysis of the cases of Ukraine and Belarus, testing the aforementioned factors for each case, comparing the main findings and drawing conclusions on what factors have been decisive for the divergent outcomes of the EU policies in these cases. The analysis shows that different domestic structures, favorable in Ukraine and unfavorable in Belarus, were responsible for Ukraine adoption of some democratic and market reforms under the EU pressure and for Belarus’ non-compliance with the EU norms. In contrast, neither a degree of incompatibility between the EU and Ukraine and Belarus, nor the EU policies, nor policies of external actors significantly affected the outcome.

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